Ah, to see the sea .......

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Nope, we haven’t disappeared into the depths of Australia (not yet anyway) and haven’t succumbed to any Australian nasties, we’ve just been having fun and I’ve been very slack with the blog! Since I last wrote, we have made our way from Albury through parts of the Kosciusko National Park, Canberra and then finally to the NSW south coast.

In my last blog I left you in the rain at Cobram and since then we have had our fair share of heavy rain but fortunately our little house is still standing. We have been caught a few times putting the tent up in thundery showers and we have noticed each other secretly scowling, enviously at others with beautiful caravans who just pull up along side us, put down the legs and hop straight inside to put the kettle on while we (the paupers, unable to afford such luxury) battle the elements! So, if you have a caravan and you find people scowling at you from across the camp spot, it’s likely to be us! Needless to say, both of us now favour what we call “the lazy camp” and just put up the essential bit of the tent and only put up the awning on special occasions!!! It seems to work well this way and we don’t get half as wet!!!

After leaving Cobram, we were surprised to find that we didn’t have to travel very far before we were met by rolling green hills which was a very pretty and welcoming sight. With our backgrounds, we felt very much at home here. Albury isn’t very far from Mt Kosciusko National Park and it certainly takes advantage of that. The main street is lined with outdoor camping and adventure shops catering for snow boarding, ski-ing, hiking, rafting, kayaking, boating … you name it! Rich quite liked this area as everything is named after him! The Hume highway runs through Albury and there is also Lake Hume which is a boaties haven and part of the Murray River. It is man made and covers something like 180 sq km so it‘s quite big but was no where near full when we were there and the dry orange riverbeds stuck out like a sore thumb against the green countryside around it. We camped in a couple of spots just to the east of Albury, again on the Murray River and it was simply stunning! Green rolling hills, lush green grass and even though Lake Hume wasn’t full, further up stream the river was in full flow due to the snow melts from the national park. It was beautiful and so different to the Murray we had come to know over the previous weeks. The water was much clearer and so much colder as you would expect. We could have mistaken it for the Lake district or parts of Scotland!!!

We have been somewhat more energetic over the past few weeks, and have taken advantage of the walks and climbs on offer. We did a walk/climb to “Valley View” in Mount Lawson state park which gave fantastic views over the Murray River valley, then we did a walk around a section of Khancoban Dam (part of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme which was built in the early 1960‘s) which is a very pretty spot with views up to Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciusko (2228metres). When we were there, we had only 2 days of nice weather and on other days, when we were receiving rain (just making us feel more at home), the mountains were still getting snow dumps which is good for almost the end of the ski season. Unfortunately, this meant that a lot of the roads up to the high spots were closed and we had to take a detour around most of the park. All was not lost though because on the not so nice days, we had some fantastic photo opportunities!

We had promised Jane (Richie’s sister) that we would visit Batlow, where she had spent a season picking apples when she was travelling, so our detour consisted of places like Tumbarumba, Batlow and Tumut, otherwise known as “fat wombat” country!. Unfortunately though, like all of our first encounters with wild Australian natives, the only ones we saw were belly up on the side of the road. Because they are usually nocturnal you wouldn’t normally see them during the day but I suppose seeing them like this reassures you that there are a few of them around. The ones we saw were not small either!!!! They obviously wouldn’t have been as tall as Woody but they would certainly have been a lot heavier than him! We have also seen a lot more echidnas and found out that brush tail possums in Tumut like Eagles Boys veggie supreme pizzas (sorry… completely my fault!!!!).

While in Tumbarumba we took a drive to Buddong falls which were beautiful but you had to be game on the road to get to them. The brochures advised that the road was only suitable for 4WD only and it sure was! It was fun at first but then after about 45 minutes trying to keep the car in an upright position (especially with a camper trailer in tow) I wasn’t so keen!!! I tried to get Rich to take my turn at driving (admitting defeat!) but he said it was all experience for me!!! Personally I think he just wasn’t game and in the end we made it back safely (yeah for me!!!). The drive was made a whole lot better as we were constantly driving through herds of Brumbies (wild horses) through the state forests which was fantastic! In Tumbarumba we also took a day to explore a section of the Hume and Hovell walking track which is a 440km track that goes from Yass to Albury and passes through a number of parks. Hamilton Hume and William Hovell were two men who explored this region back in 1824 and the walk rediscovers their route. The track is split into sections to allow different lengths of walks and we walked the route from Henry Angel Trackhead to Tumbarumba town which was a lovely but rather easy 12km walk. Henry Angel was apparently one of the servants to Hume and Hovell on their expedition who (at 26) was convicted of a crime in the UK and was sent to Australia in 1818. It was later found out that he was wrongfully convicted and was offered transportation back to Britain …. of course refused… wonder why??!!!!

Our last stop before we reached the coast was Canberra and if there is one thing to do in Canberra it would have to be the Australian War Memorial. We both thought it was fantastic and it is a lot more than you expect it to be. (Thomas and James would love the plane displays and films.)

Upon leaving Canberra we realised the car was not quite loaded up enough so we picked up some lost looking Queenslanders at Canberra airport and squeezed them into the back with their bags. Woody was not quite as excited as Rich and I as he looked on with disdain as his private suite (back seat) disappeared! When we arrived at Batemans Bay, Gayna in her usual style, pulled up a chair and allowed Jane, Rich and I to assemble the trailer! Her excuse for avoiding the work … “I’m the photographer”. I’m using that excuse with Rich from now on!!! We stayed at a caravan park so that the lovely ladies would have adequate amenities (see how nice we are to our lovely sisters!) but unfortunately, our camping position appeared to be next to the busiest road in Batemans Bay so at night you constantly thought you were about to get run over. Not only this our caravan park was apparently the best accommodation for “stag weekends” with it’s own “1800-PARTY-ON” bus that delivered drunken stags in matching pun t-shirts straight to our door! Apart from that, the park itself was very nice. Later that afternoon, we took a walk along the sea front, stopping in a lovely beer garden along the way, before heading to the shops for goodies and here you will see Jane doing her modelling bit for Woollies on Batemans Bay wharf! Classy!!!! We spent the weekend with the girls checking out the beaches, visiting little tourist spots and sampling the hospitality of Batemans Bay. As usual taking them back to the airport came all too quickly but not to worry, more plans to meet up are already in process!!!

From Batemans Bay we had an exhaustingly long drive of 30kms before we found a nice spot on the coast called Moruya and since then we’ve found many more beautiful beaches and bays to stay at. Needless to say, we haven’t travelled very far over the past week and have visited almost every town on the map! After Moruya we stayed at the intriguingly titled “Mystery Bay Primitive campground” which much to Richie’s disappointment featured neither spears, stone axes or cavemen but did have a mysterious hidden bay! It also had the most beautiful sandy beach which Woody found quite irresistible! From our vantage point high on the cliff above Mystery Bay, we could see whales on the southern leg of their annual migrations back to Antarctica. About 9kms off shore at Mystery Bay there is a wildlife reserve called Montague Island which features Little penguins, fur seals and many different sea birds. They usually run day trips out there but disappointingly for us they were not running the week we were there due to jetty/wharf upgrades, probably in time for summer arriving, so we missed out on that one. Instead we filled a couple of days with trips to a very nice country town called Central Tilba followed by lunch at the local winery and then swimming at the Olympic pool in Narooma (solar heated fortunately!).

South of Mystery Bay we stayed at Bermagui which is a small coastal town made famous because it was the place they filmed “The Man Who Sued God” (starring Billy Connelly). Nothing much to the town itself but it’s small harbour is very pretty and the Saltwater café at the end of the harbour quite possibly does the best Flake and Chips on the east coast!!!

We’re a little further south now but I’ll leave that til next time as I’ve covered a lot in this blog. Hope you enjoy the photos ……take care

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Photos

Rolling hills -Tallangatta
Just east of Albury

Murray River Valley from Valley view Mount Lawson State Park
Not far from the origin of the Murray River

Hay at Buddong Falls
This is only a section of the falls.

Sugar Pine walk at Batlow
Didn't mention this but it was a beautiful walk through a pine forest where we were met by more brumbies.

Comments

[Ayanthi]

Beautiful....thanks :-)
Beautiful, beautiful.......stunning photography too....thank you for sharing it with us! Must've been lovely meeting up again after so long. Take care and keep enjoying yourselves :-) xxx

[Roy and Linda]

Hitting the coast
The sky and scenery are such a change in this blog, hitting the coast and the sea air must have been invigorating, good for Woody too! It's great being able to watch the migrating whales so close in to land, (I remember there is a very strong southerly current along there), I've only ever saw them from a ship and often well out to sea. Seeing whales, dolphins, porpoises (or dolpoises and porphins as we called them when we were not sure what they were!) was always good for moral on the ship as was being followed for days on end by the same albatross across the remote, inhospitable wilds of the Southern Ocean. It was a pity that Montague Island was 'closed' sounds like it would have been interesting. The little penguins are known as blue penguins and fairy penguins in NZ. Koroa is their Moari name. Apparently I read somewhere once that their one difference with the Australian birds is the colour of their feet. Can't remember which but I think one has blue feet! My Australian relatives are very proud of Canberra, never made it there myself, it was pleasing to read that the war memorial is so magnificent. It is interesting trying to anticipate which direction you are going in next, back in land or along the coast? Whichever direction it is we hope the nights are getting warmer for the three of you. Looking forward to the next blog! Roy and Linda XXX

[Jennie McCombe]

Henry Angel
Just stumbled on your travel blog. Henry Angel was my great, great, great, great, great, great uncle. I knew he had been sent to Australia on the Neptune arriving in Sydney 05.05.1818. I didn't realise that it was realised at a later date that he was wrongfully convicted. Thanks for including it in your blog.

[cruizin in the green machine]

Henry Angel
Wow, thanks for contacting me Jennie, I feel very honoured! We had a great time walking the track head, it is a beautiful part of the country. It is always great to learn about the history of these places and how they came to be there but it isn't everyday you get contacted by a descendant of one of the pioneers!! Thanks again.